Devil's Blood Ranger Company
The Devil's Blood Ranger Company, later known as the Bloodsmen,''' '''was a military unit of the United States Army that fought in the Five Frontiers War (1896-1898), which involved militias across the frontier territories of New Hanover, Lemoyne, Ambarino, New Austin, and West Elizabeth who fought for each of the five territories to become independent republics. After suffering significant damage at New Hanover and later at Thieves' Landing, the company began operating as raiders, robbers, and guns-for-hire. Military operations The company most notably participated in the Battle of New Hanover, during which the nearly the entire company was wiped out against rebel forces after enduring over 140 casualties over the course of a month. Soldiers within the company that survived the disastrous battle continued serving the Army for the remainder of 1898 as scouts, traveling across the five territories and providing the government with intelligence on remaining rebel militias. In September of 1898, the Devil's Blood scouts, numbering less than fifty, were reorganized into a platoon and were ordered to launch an assault on the settlement of Thieves' Landing, a well-known hideout for the Del Lobo gang. While marching to Thieves' Landing, the scouts were intercepted by a gang of mercenaries hired by the Del Lobos, who somehow were made aware of the planned attack. Even more of the Devil's Blood were slain in the ensuing skirmish and were forced into a retreat. One of the soldiers who survived the skirmish, a corporal known by the nickname "Biggums", tracked down the Army general who ordered the attack and shot him to death, blaming him for the death of his company over the last few years. Biggums was captured by Army soldiers and imprisoned, set to be executed only months after his imprisonment. While this was taking place, other surviving soldiers abandoned the Army and began working across the five territories as mercenaries and raiders, even becoming one of the Lemoyne Raiders' main rivals. Criminal career Now known as the "Bloodsmen", what remained of the ruined company remained in contact with one-another and began releasing their captured peers, including Biggums, to join them in their quests to find fortune and freedom. The Bloodsmen's operations during this time varied drastically, ranging from working as guns-for-hire for various criminals and even corrupt lawmen, to intercepting and selling weapons shipments, to assassinating various profilic figures of various backgrounds. When not selling their services to others, the Bloodsmen independently waged war with the Lemoyne Raiders. Despite having a hand in the frontier's criminal dealings, they did sometimes cooperate with the law such as their involvement in the death of the infamous Montez brothers and their gang. They were by no means on the side of the law though, and have had violent encounters with lawmen and vigilantes in virtually every one of their operations; they were also the suspected perpetrators of several massacres in the settlements of Valentine, Blackwater, Strawberry, and possibly Annesburg, having killed more than 100 innocent civilians and many more lawmen, vigilantes, and criminals in the process. This, of course, earned each of their known members a hefty bounty, with several bounty hunter gangs dedicating their entire careers to catching these men and women in particular. The motives behind their more morbid operations was unknown, and thus it was safe to consider the Bloodsmen unaligned terrorists. Not all of the Bloodsmen, as of 1899, were survivors of the original Devil's Blood Ranger Company, as new men and women were sometimes recruited or temporarily contracted to assist them in their operations, and they were known to cooperate with other gangs for certain jobs, though they typically avoided "making new friends" as they were in fact hated by the majority of other criminal organizations including the Lemoyne Raiders, Del Lobo gang, O'Driscoll gang, and the Night Folk. Disbandment Over their two-long-year criminal career, the Bloodsmen's numbers began to dwindle as many of their members were killed, captured, or went into hiding. With less than two dozen to their name, they began testing their luck at bigger operations, including several elaborate robberies and small massacres throughout the city of Saint Denis, a raid on a U.S Army outpost (resulting in the death of the outpost's commander), several assaults on U.S Army convoys, and attacks on trains and train stations, among others. This ultimately culminated in a dedicated U.S Army effort to wipe out the remaining Bloodsmen, although this proved difficult as they did not stick around in groups of more than four individuals at a time, and thus were scattered across all five frontiers at any one time, only ever banding together as one cohesive force during larger operations. Inevitably, they did gather all available men for one last raid on Blackwater, with the goal of capturing the settlement as their own as they had tried and failed to do several times over the previous months. The Bloodsmen, with exactly 27 men at their disposal, secretly rallied at the Great Plains at midnight and camped in until noon of the following morning in February of 1900. Unbeknownst to them, however, a U.S Army scout had already reported the Bloodsmen camp hours before they began their march on the settlement, and once they arrived at Blackwater's outskirts, they were surrounding by a force of over 50 U.S Army soldiers and two dozen bounty hunters; the Army had even supplied a cannon and Gatling guns to the ambushers, who wasted no time in immediately opening fire on the Bloodsmen once they realized the situation. The Bloodsmen returned fire immediately, though were made well aware of their predicament when their men began dropping left and right. In less than ten minutes, virtually every single Bloodsman save for Biggums and three others were dead or fatally wounded. This wasn't a complete defeat, however, 13 U.S soldiers were also fatally injured in the brief firefight, as were at least six bounty hunters. In the smoke that deafened the noon sky, Biggus and the three other survivors fled, leaving dynamite traps among the corpses of his peers as he left. As some soldiers went in to inspect their fallen foes and to retrieve their arsenal of weapons and illegal moonshine, the dynamite traps went off, killing another two U.S soldiers. Only three Bloodsmen survived - one of which being Biggums, who went to serve the West Range Militia, which ironically served alongside lawmen and Army personnel in their operations against frontier insurgents. After several firefights with insurgents, Biggums fully retired and traveled to Elm City on the east coast, where he started a fishing supply shop in the end of 1901.